Two weeks ago, Dune: Part Two came out in theaters, and became the first big hit of 2024. Even with Kung Fu Panda 4 releasing last weekend, that hasn’t really changed—if anything, it’s looking like Part Two is going to have some hefty legs throughout the rest of its theatrical run.
Per Variety, the sci-fi film is more than likely going to make over $500 million by Monday. At time of writing, its global take is $494.7 million, putting it slightly over the $434.8 million of the original movie. While the 2021 film had a simultaneous HBO Max release to contend with , Part Two was touted as being exclusively in theaters, and has the word of mouth to keep it going. (If you have Twitter, you’ve probably heard of the guy who’s seen it nearly 20 times by this point.) Currently, i’s the highest-grossing movie in all of 2024 both domestically and worldwide. Going past $500M would make it one of the few movies to do so in our (not entirely) post-pandemic times, and analysts have speculated the movie will do around $600M when all is said and done.
Even with Dune’s new milestone, Kung Fu Panda 4 managed to secure the top spot in the domestic box office. Dreamworks’ animated sequel netted another $30 million in North America and $39.6 million internationally. At $176.5 million worldwide, it still has a ways to go before it touches the box office of the first three films, which each made $500-600M during their individual runs.
Next week, both movies will have some mighty competition in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which has been getting heavy promo in recent weeks. (That, and folks love them some Ghostbusters.) On March 29, the kaiju will go to war in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, though that one may be hurt (or helped) by the recent success of Godzilla Minus One. Given how well it’s doing so far, WB might keep Dune around in theaters for longer than normal—but if not, there’s always streaming.
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